Do you know that we spend more money when we are sad?

In a research funded by the National Science Foundation, the research team, composed of behavioral scientists found out that people who feel sad and “self-focused” tend to spend more than the happy or emotionally neutral people, even when buying the same item.

Cynthia E. Cryder, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University and the study’s lead author said “The tendency is to focus on oneself when sad drives this effect. More research is needed to determine whether participants are deliberately trying to improve their sense of self by acquiring goods,” added Jennifer Lerner, the report’s co-author.

In their experiments, researchers showed the test participants video clips either from a sad part in the movie “The Champ” or a neutral scene about coral reef from a National Geographic documentary.

After seeing the films, the researchers let the participants shop for ordinary items like water bottles at various prices. Interestingly, those who watched the sad film, paid up to 300 percent more for the same item than those who saw the coral reef documentary.

The researchers suggest that sadness tends stimulate people to “devalue” both themselves and their belongings, leading in efforts to “buy happiness.”

Source: NSF.gov